This week, five months after they put in their FCC application, the founders of one of those stations are finally spilling the beans on their programming plans: They’ll air progressive talk radio all day and hip-hop at night.
“There are needs in the market that aren’t currently being met,” said Jeff Lenert, a probation officer who co-founded the station, WPVC 94.7FM, with local businessman Rod Howard. Lenert, who has served as the executive director for PACEM, the nonprofit that provides shelter for the homeless, pointed out that while Charlottesville already has a variety of local and nationally syndicated conservative talk radio shows, it doesn’t fill what he sees as a hunger for locally produced progressive radio content.
“This is a progressive city, and it stands to reason that it would support this kind of programming,” he said.
Among the successful FCC applicants for other local frequencies are former longtime WNRN station manager Mike Friend, who plans to put a rock station at 92.3 on the FM dial, and Dave Mitchell, the former owner of 107.5FM. While FCC rules require that each station operate independently, Lenert and Friend said there are opportunities for cost saving collaboration.
“These stations have reasonably small coverage areas, so you have to get together and support each other or you’re going to have a problem,” said Friend, who expects the first of the local stations to begin airing this summer and the rest to be sending out signals by the end of the year.
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